Day 3 - Magic. Pure magic.

Magic 1: Miyake Taiko workshop

Having left my phone being charged at the minshuku, I woke up that morning with no concept of time. All I know: the sun was shining, but the temperature was not murderous yet. I concluded that it was sometime before 8:30 am.
Later after I fetched my phone I recognized that it was already 8:20 am (ha! my prediction wasn't off!) and I had to decide my game plan for the day.

In my agenda:
1. Take a shower
2. Miyake Taiko workshop at Sado Island Taiko Center (right by Kodo village - about 20 minutes car ride)
3. Waraku Daiko performance at 1:15 pm at Kisaki shrine
4. Everything else after #1,2,3 will be weighed accordingly after

I quickly drove back to the campsite to have a word with Divelydoo and Lady M. Basically I would be gone for the entire morning at the workshop and will not be able to make it back to the performance venue until 30 minutes prior.

9:30 am - Driving up to the workshop venue was completely blissful. The weather was so nice that day. The sky was blue and driving through the highest mountain in Sado island provided you with the nicest breeze when you have your windows open.

Sado taiko center is located right by the Kodo village. Only a few years old, the building looked brand spanking new. All wooden. After checking in our names, I wandered inside and found myself at the deck with a breathtaking view of Sado island.



The Miyake Taiko workshop was led by Mr. Akio Tsumura of Miyakejima Geino Doshikai and his 3 sons, along with several members of the group. What is so special about Miyake Taiko workshop is the miyake taiko hitting technique. A drummer performing the miyake taiko technique will be beating the drum at a very low stance. This technique was first introduced by Tsumura-sensei. Him and his three sons are the masters of this technique and pride themselves for having Kodo members as their students.



At the workshop we were introduced the basic hitting technique of the miyake taiko. The posture, the way to handle the sticks, the rhythm to be used, verbalizing the rhythm and the general understanding about it. After those explanation, without further ado, Tsumura-sensei quickly divided us into groups of 8 and started the practice.
Whoa, it was a serious work out! Well, try to half squat and move your entire body left and right while half-squatting while hitting the drums at the same time, then you'll know what I'm talking about.

Shortly after the workshop wrapped, I quickly change into my Waraku Daiko performance gear. It's the year of my brand new frog-woman shirt! Haha!!! It was quite a drama getting changed at the Sado Taiko Center ladies room since everyone seemed to want to get out of their sweaty outfit post-workshop. When some fellow students and some Miyake Daiko instructors saw me emerged in my frog woman gear, they began to ask questions.

" Why are you dressed like that?"

" Where are you going? Are you not sticking around for a little bit with us?"

"That's a lot of frogs on your shirt!"

Flustered, I said, "Sorry, 'd love to chat, but I really have to run, my taiko group is scheduled to perform at 1:15 pm. I really have to go!!!"

One of the instructor then said, "You have a performance soon after this workshop? Are you insane?? You are crazy and you look about it anyway. GO! And good luck!!!"

As I dashed to my car, I thought for a moment of what he said... Luck. Yes, that is exactly what I need!

Magic 2 - Waraku Daiko Performance

Having been so excited about the workshop experience, I hadn't had a moment to worry about Waraku Daiko performance. And for Pete's sake the first song would be featuring the flute piece! Oh dear...
I sped up with the car as quickly as I could and got to Kisaki Shrine at 12:45.
Catching up with my breath, I saw Sensei has already lined the drums down at the foot of the stage. All of Waraku members have dressed up to the nines and got ready for the performance in 30 minutes time. "OK, this is it!" I thought.

The performance started with "Kunpu", a new piece that was created for EC 2007. This song featured 4 novice flautists and Sensei, together with 12 drummers. This song was played quite peacefully. I lost my breath here and there, but it wasn't too bad.
(Sato-san in the lead drum)

Following "Kunpu" we started playing "Waraku Daiko" - this is our 'anthem', we have played this so many times that I think every Waraku member can play this song sleeping.
(Nakahara-san in the lead drum)

Third song in the program was "Habataki Daiko", a very upbeat song, also featuring one nursery rhyme "Momotaro-san".
(Divelydoo in the lead drum)

Following after that we played "Da-Da-Da". This song was written for my first Earth Celebration performance. In short, this song and I were 'born' in the same year, and thus my very strong attachment to this song.
(Taiko Tari in the lead drum)

Finally, "Nidan-uchi". This piece featured doing a piece of music using two taikos on both sides. Usually two drummers will be playing an identical piece simultaneously, in front of each other and then swap position and play again.
(Sensei in the lead drum)

The performance was fun. Not particularly our best performance, but fun nonetheless. We made some mistakes, but trust me, if you have 16 drummers on stage, it really doesn't matter much.

There was a bit of misunderstanding between Sensei and myself. He didn't remember that my workshop venue was up in the mountains, so my initial absence had caused some panic, but luckily I didn't realize there were phone calls and angry messages until AFTER the show - otherwise I would probably have been shaken to bits right before everything started. (I'm so sorry, Sensei, for all the problem this had caused, I never meant it to happen.)

I also want to mention a special thanks to Lady M and Nao for taking such wonderful pictures for us to remember the performance by. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

© Nao Horota copyright all rights reserved. 2007

Magic 3 - Collaboration Performance featuring Kodo, Zakir Hussain, Tamango, Mio Matsuda, Yosuke Yamashita, and Giovanni Hidalgo

After the franticness and craziness from the earlier part of the day, I was so happy to sink myself into the warm water of the hot-spring near our campsite. Just like yoga would do it, I felt my tiredness and muscle tension slowly released itself from all of my fingertips. Slowly but surely they slipped away...

We hung out at the harbor market until the ferry came to pick up Divelydoo and Lady M to take them back to Tokyo. After that 5 pm arrived, I joined some of the Waraku Daiko comrades who were designated to line up for grabbing seats. Unfortunately at this 3rd day we couldn't get the front row seat, our number was on the 90s and there were more people before we arrived, so we had to settle with being on 5th row. I didn't camp at the shrine that morning anyway, so I shouldn't complain. I should just cherish the fact that the weather WAS nice and Kodo decided to sell the additional tickets. So the fact that I could actually get a ticket after all this depression, I should be completely thankful about that.

The third night performance was UNBELIEVABLE!!! It was an out of this world experience!

For the first time I listened to Mio Matsuda singing... She has the voice of an angel. So beautiful. She sang a few songs in Portuguese and wore the funnest blue dress that made her look like the queen of the carnival.

Yosuke Yamashita played really intense jazz pieces. This was also my first exposure to his live performance, and he was just a very impressive pianist! Herbie Hancock, beware!

And Tamango... good ole' Tamango... He started tapping away and danced with the quickest rendition of tap movement I've ever seen in my life. I think he has no bones in his body, that everything just moves at his will. Amazing that dude!

Giovanni Hidalgo and Zakir Hussein, my deepest admiration to the two maestros. These two percussionists understood the meaning of soul, speed, virtuosity, precision and depth. Every piece, every beat they made, every touch they put on their tabla and djembe - every single one of them was heartfelt. So beautiful.

Last but not least... my beloved Kodo. There is never enough words that I could use to describe just how magnificent they are. Every single one of them. Some of the highlights that I personally noted from the evening performance: the Kodo girls presented a very cute tap dancing piece using their geta, Mitome doing the Odaiko piece, the miyake taiko performance featuring Yosuke Oda-san at main, Kaoru Watanabe and Motofumi Yamaguchi flute duet, Arai on the chappa and jangara, Eichi Saito on the big drums, Tsubasa Hori on her shime shishi daiko solo.

Out of this world, truly out of this world. When they came to perform the encore where they played the much loved song, known by all living Kodo fans, "Irodori"; I could not stop myself from becoming extremely emotional. It was so magical. The drums, the dancing, the flutes, the collaboration... There were at least 35 musicians on stage at their perfect imperfections. So many diversities, yet combined they performed such an explosive performance.

Thank you, thank you very much for the phenomenal performance. Thank you. Domo arigatou gozaimashita!

See you next year!